Liverpool city is England's most deprived local authority area. The Liverpool City Region, which includes the six local authorities of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral, is home to 327,000 children. More than 91,000 are estimated to be growing up in poverty, with levels reaching 42 per cent in some wards. Across the authorities, 4,450 disadvantaged two-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of Government-funded childcare this year.
Since 2011, the authorities have tackled child poverty together through a three-year strategy and this year revised the plans to account for local government budget reductions. Liverpool City Council plans to cut £32m in 2013/14, on top of £141m saved over the past two years. Job creation is key as Liverpool has the highest percentage of workless households in England at 28.7 per cent.
Despite these challenges, Liverpool City Council has implemented some pioneering projects. Since 2008, the Volunteer into Placement (VIP) programme has helped 400 parents find employment. Quality in early years settings is also improving through the Tots Talk programme, which uses early years professionals (EYPs) to mentor providers in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) childcare sector. There are 18 EYPs currently working on the programme.
Liverpool City Council's service manager for integrated family support, Jan Gallagher, says Government proposals to change local authority childcare support are challenging. She has concerns that quality will be affected if Ofsted becomes the sole arbiter. Liverpool's School Improvement Service currently ranks settings through a traffic light RAG (red, amber, green) system, but the council is unsure whether this will continue.
Education provision is overseen by a schools consortium - the Liverpool Learning Partnership. In 2012, 55 per cent of Liverpool's children had an overall good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), compared to 64 per cent nationally. The partnership plans to improve this by joining best practice in the EYFS with the national curriculum.
Innovation in Liverpool's children's centres
In the wake of budget cuts, Liverpool City Centre has merged a number of children's centres to create a total of 17 operating over 26 sites across the city. Mergers have not proved a barrier to quality with, for example, the merged Tuebrook and West Derby Centre recently achieving outstanding.
Kim Garthwaite, centre co-ordinator for the merged Vauxhall and Fountains Children's Centres in north Liverpool, works with families in the one per cent most deprived Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in the country. She says children's centres are now able to target vulnerable families more effectively, because the council has improved data collection by measuring deprivation within ward areas -LSOAs - rather than across wards where there are differences.
The two-year-old offer has helped children's centre nurseries become financially sustainable. 'The majority of places in my nurseries are filled by funded two-year-olds - in Fountains, it's 90 per cent,' says Ms Garthwaite.
Next year, Liverpool city must create about 3,300 more places when the entitlement is extended. To meet this, the council has used trajectory funding to offer capital funds for expansions and adaptations, which many schools have taken up.
Ms Garthwaite says the biggest issue caused by funding cuts is having to drop creche services when parents attend support sessions. To address this, the centres have changed timings of parental services to coincide with free childcare for two-year-olds.
'It's been hard in the cuts but it's made us more innovative,' she says. 'Liverpool passionately supports children's centres and will do everything to maintain the network.'
Knowsley, which neighbours Liverpool city to the east, is the fifth most deprived local authority area in England. Knowsley Council has protected its 15 children's centres from budget cuts until March 2016. The centres are working to reduce child poverty in line with the joint three-year strategy. This involves working with parents to promote children's physical activity and improvements to the way the centres work with health visitors, school nursing teams and schools.
This work is also focused on Knowsley's 534 two-year-olds eligible for the free entitlement. The council wants PVI settings to have an early years graduate or EYP on their team who the local children's centre supports. They work directly with two-year-olds to ensure their learning and development progresses.
'This helps ensure the two-year-old offer is closing the gap for children from lower income households,' says Knowsley Council cabinet member for children and family services Graham Wright.
COMPETITIVE MARKET
Liverpool City Council's PVI sector has 229 day nurseries and 247 childminders. Nurseries are distributed fairly evenly as wards have varying levels of deprivation. However, some of the poorest areas have few private providers, such as Everton, which has only two day nurseries. Childminders are also located across the city, although the city-centre wards of Central and Princes Park have none, while neighbouring Riverside offers only two. Less deprived wards, such as Church and Mossley Hill in the south have 15 and 16 schemes respectively.
The Bertram Nursery Group opened its Holyrood Nursery in Liverpool's Princes Dock in 2011, after identifying an opportunity to expand in the regenerated area. Located on the River Mersey, the development boasts hotels, luxury apartments and a cruise liner facility. The area exemplifies how parts of Liverpool are booming, as the Government recently approved another £5.5bn redevelopment project nearby.
Bertram Nursery Group commercial director Susan McGhee says that with a total of five nurseries in the area, the local market is competitive. Holyrood has more space than its registered capacity for 100 children.
'We've added a lot to beat competition in the area,' says Ms McGhee. The nursery's three rooms house 'imagination land', a scaled-down town including a mini supermarket, a garage, a builders' yard and a soft play centre. The nursery also offers a parcel acceptance service. Ms McGhee says take-up of places is good with parents who work nearby.
The House Day Nursery (pictured) in Crosby in the Sefton local authority area north of Liverpool City is also within a competitive local market. The setting provides wrap-around care to children aged up to 11 and has 92 places. The centre offers pick-up and drop-off services for children and a CCTV system that allows parents to watch their children remotely.
'It's nice because some of the children are here full time so parents can see how they're getting on and have peace of mind - it really sells our setting,' says manager Sam Lewis.
Although Crosby is a prosperous area with several good schools, including independent schools to which House Day is a feeder, the nursery currently has two children taking up the free entitlement for two-year-olds. Ms Lewis says her staff attended training provided by Sefton Council for two-year-olds, and the authority is also offering funding for adaptations to settings that provide the offer.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- Liverpool has a Parent Champion programme, developed by the Family and Childcare Trust and funded by the DfE up to 2015, www.daycaretrust.org.uk/data/files/Projects/Parent_Champions/Case_studie s/ParentChampionsCaseStudies_web_version.pdf
- Liverpool City Council, http://liverpool.gov.uk
- Tots Talk programme, www.nurseryworld.co.uk/article/1186331/ tots-talk-programme--strategy-quality-provision-achieved-results
PARENT CHAMPION: CHERYL MUNDLE
'I I heard about the Parent Champions programme when I was on a local children's centre Volunteer into Placement (VIP) programme in 2011,' says Cheryl Mundle. 'I'm a single parent and at that time my twin boys were seven months old. I was trying to find employment and wasn't getting anywhere. Unfortunately I lost the job I got through the VIP programme. When the Parent Champions opportunity came up I was more than willing to do it.
'The pilot scheme involved six parent champions and over the first six months we engaged about 600 families. I found the role natural because I was a parent advising other parents. I grew in confidence and my experiences helped me get a job. I now teach parents back-to-work skills on the VIP programme, such as self-esteem, CV writing and interview technique. I still volunteer one day a week with Parent Champions. I've worked at children's centres across Liverpool and often train new volunteers.
'I spread the word about Parent Champions whenever I can and often see parents I've helped when I'm out. The other day a lady ran over to me in the park in tears. She said the day I came to her house changed everything, because I gave her courage to attend mother and toddler groups and she's getting her life together. It's a lovely feeling.'
Part 2 in NW 21 october will focus on Devon
